View full sizeMorganne M. Atutis / The Post-Standard This parking garage at 144 Evans Street, Syracuse, N.Y., includes a 16-foot by 59-foot fallout shelter. That allows the owners to avoid paying $66,000 a year in property taxes.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse tax rules may soon be updated to acknowledge the end of the Cold War. A city lawmaker today introduced legislation to repeal a tax exemption for parking garages with nuclear fallout shelters.

Syracuse has the last parking garage in the state to take advantage of the exemption, which was instituted in 1960. The Bridgewater Place parking garage in Franklin Square is in its final year of a 20-year tax break, which saves the owners about $66,000 a year.

David Clifford, the city assessor, said he sought legislation to repeal the long-outdated exemption. “There are hundreds of exemptions out there, and some of them no longer make sense,” Clifford said. “This is a perfect example.”

District 3 Councilor Ryan McMahon, who chairs the finance committee, proposed a local law Wednesday that would rescind the tax break. The measure is likely to be voted on at the Aug. 22 council meeting.

If the tax break is rescinded, it would prevent any future garage from taking advantage but would not affect the Bridgewater Place garage, Clifford said. The garage’s 20-year exemption ends January 2012.

The Post-Standard reported earlier this month that the garage owners, companies associated with developer Robert Congel, have saved more than $1.2 million from the tax break since 1991. The garage’s fallout shelter is used for storage.

Development of the Bridgewater Place office building was a crucial step in the restoration of Franklin Square, once a wasteland of vacant factories. McMahon said city officials used the fallout shelter exemption in the past to help promote economic development, but the tax break no longer serves that purpose.

“Clearly, it’s not being used as an economic development tool anymore, so it’s time to get rid of the exemption,” he said.